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Five questions for Anna Widlund on pupil motivation and well-being（https://www.abo.fi/en/news/five-questions-for-anna-widlund-on-pupil-motivation-and-well-being/）
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28.10.2026
Five questions for Anna Widlund on pupil motivation and well-being
Anna Widlund is an Associate Professor in Special Education and an Academy Research Fellow at Åbo Akademi University. Her research focuses on the well-being, motivation and learning of children and adolescents, particularly in mathematics.
In her Academy Research Fellow project, MotiWell, she is studying pupils from grade 4 to grade 9 in order to understand how motivation and well-being develop and relate to learning and educational goals, from school year to school year and lesson to lesson.
What sparked your interest in this field of research?
My interest began during my special education teacher studies. Even then, I was fascinated by how important pupils’ perceptions of themselves as learners are.
In schools, we often focus on learning and achievement, and it is easy to believe that good grades are the key to success. However, how pupils view their own abilities, as well as the values and emotions they associate with learning, play a crucial role in how much effort they put in, how persistent they are, and which educational paths they choose. Sometimes these factors matter even more than actual performance.
Why do some pupils consistently underestimate their abilities despite performing very well? Why is this especially common among girls in mathematics? And why do many pupils choose not to pursue mathematics-related studies even though they are interested in and perform well in the subject?
Every lesson is an opportunity to influence a student’s motivation, says Anna Widlund, Associate Professor of Special Education and Academy Research Fellow at Åbo Akademi University. Her research focuses on the well-being, motivation, and learning of children and young people, particularly in mathematics. Photo: Catrin Sandvik
Today, we also see increasingly younger pupils experiencing low motivation and school-related fatigue, which hinder both learning and well-being. As a researcher, I want to understand why this happens and how we can support pupils early on.
What is the most unexpected discovery you have made in your research, and why was it significant?
One finding that surprised me was that increased interest in one subject can reduce motivation in another.
When we followed more than 600 pupils throughout lower secondary school, we noticed several negative relationships between motivation in mathematics and motivation in the native language.